On this World Environment Day, France underscores the urgent need for international mobilization on the global environmental crisis that threatens our prosperity and our security. Such a situation calls for a profound change in our practices and must also translate into effective multilateral action.

The speed, scope and consequences of the environmental crisis being experienced by the planet are unprecedented. The continued rise in greenhouse gases is sparking a change in the climate whose consequence are incalculable to health; agriculture; biodiversity, which is in decline, and threatened by the pressure on our ecosystems; and our oceans, which are increasingly polluted, notably by plastic waste.

Responses to these global challenges must be concrete and driven by multilateral cooperation. France is working with its international partners on strengthening the implementation of the instruments and common objectives in support of biodiversity and the preservation of the environment.

The Paris Climate Change Agreement now ratified by 177 parties proves that it is possible to work together for a healthier environment. France hereby commits itself to the Agreement’s implementation on French territory and internationally. The next meeting will be the COP24, to be held in December and chaired by Poland. It must come up with implementing rules that are robust, ambitious, and operational.

To codify, consolidate and disseminate the major principles of international environmental law, we are also working on the adoption of a global pact for the environment under the auspices of the UN. France hopes that the negotiation of this pact, whose first procedural resolution was adopted by a very large majority on May 10, will be guided by the sense of responsibility and urgency imposed on us by the current environmental crisis. This effort will be fully meaningful only if all rally behind it to create a global momentum to develop concrete, local, national, and international solutions.